Falcon 9 took-off from the ground far-off from Florida coast and after reaching 200 kilometers into space the first stage booster detached. Then the nitrogen attitude thrusters set into action and the rocket headed on course back to Earth. After re-orienting itself to brace for Earth’s atmosphere the rocket landed safely on ground. This successful mission marks a new step in the dream of space tourism and a fruitful return on investment of $60 million on Falcon 9 rocket.

The next target for SpaceX is to reduce the cost of production and testing to make space tourism a feasible option in the coming years. Elon has a far-sighted dream of colonizing Mars and in that context this is just a small little step. So there is still a long way to go.

This successful launch of Falcon 9 rocket follows suite as Blue Origin managed to fly their rocket and launch it back safely in the first attempt itself. Boy, the race for space tourism is beginning to sound interesting as the big guns look to nail it without any flaws.

Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation said:

It makes you rethink the way we do business. That’s the bottom line. Is there a better way to do spaceflight? It used to be if, or when, we could reuse rockets. But now we’ve crossed off the ‘if,’ and then ‘when.’ It changes the way the industry is going to do business.

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Hailing from the northern region of India, Gaurav has a profound liking for everything upbeat in the cloud and vision to acquaint readers with the latest technology news. He likes to observe nature, write thought provoking quotes, travel places, drive cars and play video games when things get too boring. And his food for thought comes from ambient music scores he listens to.